 A typical pitted-wood gameboard using six differently colored sets of marbles. Another popular format uses colored pegs in holes. | |
| Genres | |
|---|---|
| Players | 2–4, 6 |
| Playing time | 10–30 minutes |
| Chance | None |
| Age range | 7+ |
| Skills | Strategy, tactics |
| Synonyms |
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Chinese checkers (US) or Chinese chequers (UK),[1] known as Sternhalma in German, is a strategy board game of German origin that can be played by two, three, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners.[2] The game is a modern and simplified variation of the game Halma.[3]
The objective is to be first to race all of one's pieces across the hexagram-shaped board into "home"—the corner of the star opposite one's starting corner—using single-step moves or moves that jump over other pieces. The remaining players continue the game to establish second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, and last-place finishers.[4]
- ^ "Chinese chequers". Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Five people cannot play, because one player would lack an opponent sitting opposite.
- ^ Schmittberger (1992), pp. 87–88. "Halma · The original inspiration for Chinese Checkers. Halma originated in Victorian England. [...] Halma is played the same way as Chinese Checkers, except that the board grid is square rather than hexagonal. This makes the play more complicated because pieces can move in eight directions—that is, along any horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line—instead of only six."
- ^ Bell (1983), p. 154.